The moment I stepped outside, it seemed extra dark and spooky without Wick with me. I held my breath as I approached the steps that led down to the basement, thinking this would be an ideal place for a stalker to hang out while waiting for his next victim to pass by.Great. That vision calmed me down so much.I peeked into the lightened stairwell and blew out a breath when I only found a cat at the bottom, drinking from its bowl. So I clambered down the steps, which scared the shit out of poor Mr. Whiskers, and he darted back into the basement through his swinging cat door.By the time I reached the door myself and pulled it open, the cat was long gone. But I felt a little better, stepping inside the basement and knowing the animal was in there with me. Somewhere. Sometimes, just having another soul around—whether they interacted with you or not—made all the difference in the world.As luck would have it, the spin cycle on my sheets was just slowing to an end when I entered the lau

I missed my first two classes of the day. But I made it to the third.The world looked different now. As soon as I stepped on campus and glanced around me, I saw strangers in a strange land, walking past, looking as if they had purpose. As if they had worth. I kept expecting them to glance at me peculiarly and ask what I was doing there. It all seemed so new and foreign all of a sudden.Hiking my book bag more securely onto my back, I lowered my gaze and started toward the Family and Consumer Science building. As an Early Childhood Education major, I spent half my school day at the university’s preschool lab, where I fulfilled my practicum experience. Next semester, I’d move up to student teaching and actually get to assist in some of the teaching instead of what I did now, which was basically take kids to the bathroom, help pass out snacks, set up activities, and clean messes.But that took place in the afternoon. So as I hurried toward my Early Literacy and Language Development cl

Cannon had been right on the money.Shit wasn’t okay.And I didn’t have a damn thing under control.Nicholl was hell-bent on finding Haven, and he wasn’t going to stop looking until he figured out where she was, starting his search with me.He and his goons caught me right before practice.After the night I’d had, I still wasn’t firing on all my cylinders and was running late. Almost everyone else had already cleared out of the locker room and were out on the field warming up by the time I rushed in to put on my gear.So I was alone by the time I tugged on my shoulder pads and plunked myself down on a bench to lace up my shoes. I’d just stood up and was turning toward the exit when the first two assholes grabbed me from behind, locking on to my arms and yanking me back until my spine slammed into a closed locker. The shoulder pads absorbed most of the impact, but still…“Ouch. What the hell?” I struggled to yank myself free. “Let go.”Another two appeared next to the first pair

So, early Friday morning, Wick had me meet him at the student health center for my checkup. It felt wrong that I had to even do this; I’d always taken safe sex seriously. Why had I been stupid enough to think the only boyfriend I’d ever had would feel the same way? Now, here I was, paying for my own naïve gullibility.The wind seemed to think it personally needed to slap me across the face for my idiocy too. It whipped my hair out of place, obstructing my view and clogging my mouth so I was still scrambling to hand-brush it back into place and hold on to my backpack that I had hooked over one shoulder as I pushed through the front door.Disheveled mess that I was, however, I was apparently at least a quiet one. No one heard me enter.One woman sat out in the waiting area, flipping through a magazine. A receptionist sat behind a tall counter. And Wick Webster stood leaning against the same counter at the far end where he chatted with a young nurse who bustled around on the other side

The gentle knock that fell on my door told me it could be no one else but Wick. Beau would’ve pounded, Cress would’ve walked in without even knocking, and no way would Fox come near me after seeing me tear up. Nothing scared him off like crying girls.I sighed because it seemed too rude to tell Wick to fuck off since he hadn’t done anything wrong, even though I just wanted to be left alone.Well played, cousins. Well played.Wiping at my eyes, I mumbled, “It’s open.”The door slowly floated inward, but he didn’t come inside. Leaning against the doorjamb, he crossed his arms over his chest and watched me from worried eyes. “They’re still here, stealing food from our kitchen. You want me to kick them out?”I smiled through my tears and shook my head. The way he said our kitchen brightened something inside me. I hadn’t even lived here a full three days yet, but he was already willing to share the place with me, despite his initial resistance to the idea.“No,” I told him. “They’re f